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In this June 21, 2016, file photo, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Ohio, speaks in Columbus, Ohio. Republican Sen. Rob Portman rolls out a labor endorsement from a union that had backed his ... more >

U.S. Senate candidate and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has apologized after saying Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death “happened at a good time.”

Mr. Strickland, a Democrat, was speaking at an AFL-CIO event in Cleveland Monday when he said Scalia’s death “saved labor” from a major blow in March. With Scalia’s seat vacant, the justices ended in a 4-4 deadlock in a case challenging the right of public-sector unions to collect dues from workers who decide not to join the union and pay for collective bargaining activities, The Washington Examiner reported.

“In about three-and-a-half months, we’ll make a decision about who occupies the executive branch, what party controls the Senate, and growing out of those two decisions will be the future of the United States Supreme Court,” Mr. Stricklandtold attendees. “And my friends, a lot of average citizens out there don’t understand the importance of that court.

“I mean, the death of Scalia saved labor from a terrible decision,” he said to cheers. “And I don’t wish anyone ill, but it happened at a good time because once that decision had been made, it would have been tough to reverse it.”

Mr. Strickland apologized in a statement to the Washington Examiner Wednesday morning.

“That was an insensitive remark and I apologize,” he said.

Mr. Strickland is running for Senate against Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who is in the lead by a nearly 6-point margin, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.